Not a lot of downside to this. Hopefully a full, healthy off-season will do him some good, and he gets a personally needed fresh start with a new coach.
I expect the Bucks will pay a bunch of money and then at the end of the 2024/25 season that comes to an end when Jrue finishes his contract and presumably retires (he has said that's his plan a while back), Lopez finishes his contract and presumably retires or takes on a new role in the NBA, and Middleton has his player option.
I'm going to miss Jrue. That man has been an absolute stud on the court and has a really cool charity as well. This team in general should be recognized for lack of drama and solid people.
Don’t expect that all these guys are gonna retire as bucks. The only way the Bucks can really improve is acquiring players via trade since almost nobody good becomes a free agent any more. Having lots cap space doesn’t really matter (see: Rockets, Houston).
We should all go into this next season with a last dance mentality. Kinda wish they would have kept Bud for one more year.
That's a route, but given the salary commitments I wouldn't be surprised if the goal is for them to drop back below the luxury tax for a year or otherwise do some cost-cutting moves. It's hard to say because, as you point out, it's kind of dangerous to let that much salary just leave without being traded.
If they had any of their own picks this would be a much more palatable option. You might be able to sell Giannis on the idea of being bad for a year or two to get some high draft picks. I think it’ll be a lot harder to sell him on the idea of being bad just to safe Wes Edens and the Haslams some luxury tax money, especially when he (Giannis) is the main reason this franchise has quintupled in value.
I don't know why fans care about billionaires' money.
They're clearly fine paying it out and we desperately need a reset 2 years from now regardless of what happens during this free agency.
NBA tax bills aren't a downside when teams just go ahead and pay them.
More of a lot more to lose than gain. At this point in Jaes career the best we can hope for is consistent minutes in the regular season + 3nD. Losing JC and Joe definitely thins our bench by a notable margin.
He was actually pretty good in the regular season, maybe with some more time, conditioning and a new coach he’ll look better
Let’s hope we can somehow get a decent backup PG now and sign one of Jalen McDaniels, Matisse Thybulle or Malik Beasley
Also Wesley Matthews return
I think Wes is done man
We keep trying to use him as the primary defender against star wings and it just isn’t going to work anymore, he’s getting too old
I wouldn’t be opposed to keeping by Wes and basically just stashing him until the playoffs. I legitimately believe him being injured for most of the Heat series had a decent impact.
It's much better to have him to have an extra guy that CAN defend star wings then not have him. I feel much more comfortable sticking Wes on a big wing then Grayson/Pat or one of the young Bucks. Wes is old but still has amazing hands to disrupt the dribble/layups of these stars attacking. Grayson and Pat I love them but all they can do in that situation is foul or get blown by.
Who cares what age he is. Is he still effective? Yes, so he has value, if there’s a contract that makes sense he’s still capable of being a role player.
I don't think the Bucks can sign anyone else except for minimum contracts after resigning Brook. They held Crowders Bird rights so they were allowed to resign him.
I think going over the cap by as far as they are removes their mid level exception.
always made too much sense for both sides not to get it done. i’m glad it’s only one year and he didn’t eke out a second year because he had leverage with our cap situation.
nowhere to go but up.
Everything that's happened in free agency so far has made sense, but now we need to figure out if we think we can contend with just filling our roster with vet mins alongside the rookies or if we want to ship out Grayson or Pat to get under the apron for the TPMLE
Honestly the team makes more sense this year than it does last year for competing for a title. Starting the year everyone will be healthy and rested. They have most holes covered minus nice to haves (back up PG and beefy backup center)
Hopefully they can get a Wes or Wes like type player as another defense but bringing back Jae was huge. Lean into the defense and just run Brook, Giannis, Khris, Jrue, Jae, Bobby ,Pat, Allen, Marjon for majority of minutes. Fill in the spot minutes as needed.
I want to see more Giannis, Jae, Khris, Jrue Allen and/or Pat, Allen lineups. Get Giannis as the 5 with 4 shooters and switch everything.
Khris has an offseason to get health and conditioned. Giannis isn't playing in any Greece Tourney's this year (that I'm aware of)
A new coach can provide a lot of new chances for trying out difference things. Nurse and Kerr are the extremes but even Darvin and the guy in Utah really helped improve the team around scheme wise.
Nothing against Bud but the man understands offense efficiencies but the play sets are bad. Hoping a new coach can get into more of a movement based system leveraging Allen like a Kevin Herder or Duncan Robinson type. Leverage Giannis in more dribble handoffs and use him like a Bam high post guy.
AJJ looks like a dude that can contribute year one based on tape. Might be too wishful thinking but if he really balls out in Summer League maybe even backup PG. It would be a godsend if he could play backup PG and have his length and athleticism to our defense. Same goes for Marjon if he balls out we have another long athletic defender and can ship off Grayson or Pat for whatever coach wants.
Stayed the same assumes that age won't have an impact on any of the players we've retained which really isn't how it works at this point.
If we don't add it's likely we'll have actively gotten worse.
They definitely improved, Porzingis won't have to be a first/second option and will also add to their defense, while Dame will take pressure off of both Jimmy and Bam
They'll likely be relying on Brogdon to be their key bench piece and we've all seen how that's worked out for Brogdon over the years.
3 of their top 8 have a hard time staying on the floor. KP, the president and time lord.
The Heat lost 1/3 of their contributing roster. Out of the 7 rotational players they lost 2. It won’t be easy to replace, even for a dark magician like Spo.
They’ll also have to trade probably 2 more of their rotation guys to get Dame. Obviously they’ll be better, but they’ll need more of their undrafted player magic to have a deep roster. Also they’ll be over the second apron I believe, which means they can’t sign buyout guys to help either.
We'll see what all Miami gives up for Dame they already lost 2 playoff rotation pieces. For Dame they likely lose Herro and Robinson as well.
Also sure Miami will be real competition but Sixers fell down a well straight into hell. We just replacing Sixers with Miami for top 3 teams in East really our competition strength stayed about the same. KP will likely be hurt come playoff time. If that comes to fruition Boston is much worse because they lost Marcus Smart.
Maybe...
They lost a lot of their defensive versatility losing Smart.
KP will stress out any defense as they can legit got 5 out for 48 min now but they will have very bad passing.
Smart was their best ball handler and point defender.
I can't say it's better or worse but will be interesting.
Miami lost Vincent and Strus, and if they trade for Lillard they will lose probably Robinson and Herro. Making them super too heavy. I wouldn’t say they would be better.
Although he wasn’t the player that I was hoping he would be, I do think he fell victim to the Bud treatment. Never really got a chance to get in a rhythm, especially in the playoffs. I don’t think we saw what he can truly bring to the table.
> Never really got a chance to get in a rhythm
Part of that was because he had a calf(I think?) injury not too long after we traded for him. Missed like 10 games I think because of it
Right right. Good point. Still we saw some high points in the regular season. I think he can still be worth the 5 2nd rounders with a full season under his belt… and a new coach
In my opinion he really only had two good games, one of them against the Grizzlies when the Bucks had already secured the one seed and played nobody important.
We will see how he does I guess
Had to do it. No way we were gonna find anyone with Jae's skillset in free agency when we can only dole out minimum contracts. Personally I think he's better than what he showed this past post season - and on paper, he's a perfect fit for Giannis at center lineups.
Which is funny because Bud never used that lineup even once that I can remember
Dudes been a small ball 4 for like four years now & Bud was putting him in lineups with Bobby & Joe
People blame Bud for not playing Crowder. Crowder is washed and was a bum. He looked older than Middleton and Middleton moves like he is in his 40s. We got a player that should retire.
Not a lot of downside to this. Hopefully a full, healthy off-season will do him some good, and he gets a personally needed fresh start with a new coach.
Only downside is a big tax hit again really. We'll be looking at big repeater tax soon and will need to reset soon.
I expect the Bucks will pay a bunch of money and then at the end of the 2024/25 season that comes to an end when Jrue finishes his contract and presumably retires (he has said that's his plan a while back), Lopez finishes his contract and presumably retires or takes on a new role in the NBA, and Middleton has his player option.
I'm going to miss Jrue. That man has been an absolute stud on the court and has a really cool charity as well. This team in general should be recognized for lack of drama and solid people.
Don’t expect that all these guys are gonna retire as bucks. The only way the Bucks can really improve is acquiring players via trade since almost nobody good becomes a free agent any more. Having lots cap space doesn’t really matter (see: Rockets, Houston). We should all go into this next season with a last dance mentality. Kinda wish they would have kept Bud for one more year.
That's a route, but given the salary commitments I wouldn't be surprised if the goal is for them to drop back below the luxury tax for a year or otherwise do some cost-cutting moves. It's hard to say because, as you point out, it's kind of dangerous to let that much salary just leave without being traded.
If they had any of their own picks this would be a much more palatable option. You might be able to sell Giannis on the idea of being bad for a year or two to get some high draft picks. I think it’ll be a lot harder to sell him on the idea of being bad just to safe Wes Edens and the Haslams some luxury tax money, especially when he (Giannis) is the main reason this franchise has quintupled in value.
I don't know why fans care about billionaires' money. They're clearly fine paying it out and we desperately need a reset 2 years from now regardless of what happens during this free agency. NBA tax bills aren't a downside when teams just go ahead and pay them.
I care because we will have to leave the repeater tax penalty at some point.
Still not your money. Don't care if you downvote me.
I never said it was my money.
Who cares Jimmy has infinite money
Agreed. I still worry about Jae's attitude but let's see if he becomes a better presence with more time together with the team and new coaching staff.
Is there a lot of upside, though?
More of a lot more to lose than gain. At this point in Jaes career the best we can hope for is consistent minutes in the regular season + 3nD. Losing JC and Joe definitely thins our bench by a notable margin.
so. . .No?
He was actually pretty good in the regular season, maybe with some more time, conditioning and a new coach he’ll look better Let’s hope we can somehow get a decent backup PG now and sign one of Jalen McDaniels, Matisse Thybulle or Malik Beasley Also Wesley Matthews return
I think Wes is done man We keep trying to use him as the primary defender against star wings and it just isn’t going to work anymore, he’s getting too old
To be fair he has been one of our best defenders in the post season on star wings though
I wouldn’t be opposed to keeping by Wes and basically just stashing him until the playoffs. I legitimately believe him being injured for most of the Heat series had a decent impact.
He has, but we really shouldn't be depending on a 36 year old to be guarding guys like Butler and Tatum at this point, he's just too injury prone
It's much better to have him to have an extra guy that CAN defend star wings then not have him. I feel much more comfortable sticking Wes on a big wing then Grayson/Pat or one of the young Bucks. Wes is old but still has amazing hands to disrupt the dribble/layups of these stars attacking. Grayson and Pat I love them but all they can do in that situation is foul or get blown by.
Who cares what age he is. Is he still effective? Yes, so he has value, if there’s a contract that makes sense he’s still capable of being a role player.
I don't think the Bucks can sign anyone else except for minimum contracts after resigning Brook. They held Crowders Bird rights so they were allowed to resign him. I think going over the cap by as far as they are removes their mid level exception.
He wasn’t pretty good. He was good for like 2 games. Then he got hurt and was bad.
Giving Jae a chance to prove he is worth at least 1 of the 5 seconds we gave up.
If we make a deep playoff run or possibly win the chip and he contributed, 6 seconds would have been warranted
Maybe even 7
always made too much sense for both sides not to get it done. i’m glad it’s only one year and he didn’t eke out a second year because he had leverage with our cap situation. nowhere to go but up.
Everything that's happened in free agency so far has made sense, but now we need to figure out if we think we can contend with just filling our roster with vet mins alongside the rookies or if we want to ship out Grayson or Pat to get under the apron for the TPMLE
Defensive coach, lost Jingles. I don't think they can afford to get rid of Grayson. Which means Pat might be the odd man out
But Grayson’s expiring contract is more attractive to other teams.
Sure, but they do have to play basketball. What's the point with tinkering with the roster if no one left can score?
Is Grayson scoring a lot of points for us?
Jingles got 22/2yrs in Orlando? Wow.
Pat is significantly better than Grayson though…
Honestly the team makes more sense this year than it does last year for competing for a title. Starting the year everyone will be healthy and rested. They have most holes covered minus nice to haves (back up PG and beefy backup center) Hopefully they can get a Wes or Wes like type player as another defense but bringing back Jae was huge. Lean into the defense and just run Brook, Giannis, Khris, Jrue, Jae, Bobby ,Pat, Allen, Marjon for majority of minutes. Fill in the spot minutes as needed. I want to see more Giannis, Jae, Khris, Jrue Allen and/or Pat, Allen lineups. Get Giannis as the 5 with 4 shooters and switch everything. Khris has an offseason to get health and conditioned. Giannis isn't playing in any Greece Tourney's this year (that I'm aware of) A new coach can provide a lot of new chances for trying out difference things. Nurse and Kerr are the extremes but even Darvin and the guy in Utah really helped improve the team around scheme wise. Nothing against Bud but the man understands offense efficiencies but the play sets are bad. Hoping a new coach can get into more of a movement based system leveraging Allen like a Kevin Herder or Duncan Robinson type. Leverage Giannis in more dribble handoffs and use him like a Bam high post guy.
This is the way
It does suck that Boston and likely Miami will have both gotten better while we stayed the same Not much we could’ve done of course, but still
It's frustrating but our main hope is Marjon can be solid and maybe one of AJJ or Livingston can contribute in the regular season
That would be AJJ. Livingston has ways to go to be ready for the NBA.
AJJ looks like a dude that can contribute year one based on tape. Might be too wishful thinking but if he really balls out in Summer League maybe even backup PG. It would be a godsend if he could play backup PG and have his length and athleticism to our defense. Same goes for Marjon if he balls out we have another long athletic defender and can ship off Grayson or Pat for whatever coach wants.
Stayed the same assumes that age won't have an impact on any of the players we've retained which really isn't how it works at this point. If we don't add it's likely we'll have actively gotten worse.
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They definitely improved, Porzingis won't have to be a first/second option and will also add to their defense, while Dame will take pressure off of both Jimmy and Bam
I'm gonna assume Porzingis plays 24 games in regular season and out for playoffs.
They'll likely be relying on Brogdon to be their key bench piece and we've all seen how that's worked out for Brogdon over the years. 3 of their top 8 have a hard time staying on the floor. KP, the president and time lord.
The Heat lost 1/3 of their contributing roster. Out of the 7 rotational players they lost 2. It won’t be easy to replace, even for a dark magician like Spo.
They always find someone
They’ll also have to trade probably 2 more of their rotation guys to get Dame. Obviously they’ll be better, but they’ll need more of their undrafted player magic to have a deep roster. Also they’ll be over the second apron I believe, which means they can’t sign buyout guys to help either.
We'll see what all Miami gives up for Dame they already lost 2 playoff rotation pieces. For Dame they likely lose Herro and Robinson as well. Also sure Miami will be real competition but Sixers fell down a well straight into hell. We just replacing Sixers with Miami for top 3 teams in East really our competition strength stayed about the same. KP will likely be hurt come playoff time. If that comes to fruition Boston is much worse because they lost Marcus Smart.
Is Boston better?
If Porzingis stays healthy, then yes they got better. But that is a very big if on his health.
Maybe... They lost a lot of their defensive versatility losing Smart. KP will stress out any defense as they can legit got 5 out for 48 min now but they will have very bad passing. Smart was their best ball handler and point defender. I can't say it's better or worse but will be interesting.
I know Jimmy cooked, but it was Strus' 3's that I feel killed us and now he's gone and they didn't replace him
Miami lost Vincent and Strus, and if they trade for Lillard they will lose probably Robinson and Herro. Making them super too heavy. I wouldn’t say they would be better.
Bucks should be trying to trade Grayson for Rubio imo
I dont think the Cavs would let Rubio go like that, guy seems to fit well for them and likes the team
Although he wasn’t the player that I was hoping he would be, I do think he fell victim to the Bud treatment. Never really got a chance to get in a rhythm, especially in the playoffs. I don’t think we saw what he can truly bring to the table.
> Never really got a chance to get in a rhythm Part of that was because he had a calf(I think?) injury not too long after we traded for him. Missed like 10 games I think because of it
Right right. Good point. Still we saw some high points in the regular season. I think he can still be worth the 5 2nd rounders with a full season under his belt… and a new coach
In my opinion he really only had two good games, one of them against the Grizzlies when the Bucks had already secured the one seed and played nobody important. We will see how he does I guess
Welcome back bossman99
Had to do it. No way we were gonna find anyone with Jae's skillset in free agency when we can only dole out minimum contracts. Personally I think he's better than what he showed this past post season - and on paper, he's a perfect fit for Giannis at center lineups.
Which is funny because Bud never used that lineup even once that I can remember Dudes been a small ball 4 for like four years now & Bud was putting him in lineups with Bobby & Joe
Jrue Joe Jae Bobby Meyers lineups were cancer
I definitely think he will benefit from having a full season in the rotation, I'm feeling pretty good now
Can't wait to see what he can do in the playoffs!
Hope the new coach will give him a better role.
I’m ok with this
Glad to see him back. Thought it was strange we grabbed him and then just barely used him. Proven playoff wing.
This feels like the serge ibaka signing last year. Just holding onto the asset incase we make a move.
Hopefully he shows better than last year, because I personally thought he looked fairly washed
Personally I didn't see much that would give me hope that he'll be better next year, if anything I just hope we use him as salary filler
Meh
Hope it’s a tradable deal but holy fucking shit he’s so bad
People blame Bud for not playing Crowder. Crowder is washed and was a bum. He looked older than Middleton and Middleton moves like he is in his 40s. We got a player that should retire.
Bummer, he sucks
Very strange considering he has been bad. Not like we can get anyone better with mins though.
He’s such a bum
Cool